Traffic Impacts of Bridge Closures 1: Lafayette Bridge

Principal Investigator:

Project Summary:

This project analyzes the travel demand implications of two potential staging scenarios for replacement of the Highway 52 Lafayette Bridge over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In the first staging scenario, Highway 52 across the Mississippi River would be kept open during staged construction of the replacement bridge. In the second staging scenario, Highway 52 would be completely closed at the river during construction. The first scenario has the advantage of maintaining traffic during construction, while the second scenario has advantages that include reducing the total project duration by two years, and enabling the public to reap the benefits of the new, wider bridge two years earlier. This research project will estimate vehicle-hours of travel (VHT) and vehicle-miles of travel (VMT) over an influence area, as well as the quality of operations on specific neighboring river crossings and network links, under both potential staging scenarios. In this way, the overall impact to road-users of each staging scenario will be quantified. The results will be compared and interpreted to determine whether one staging scenario is preferable to the other.